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Advance GenerationThe hallmark of sprite-based Pokémon gaming, Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald set you off on an adventure in the watery Hoenn region with tons of diverse Pokémon to discover. Fans of Kanto can reexplore their favorite region in FireRed and LeafGreen. Here you'll find other fans who enjoy talking about the Pokémon, strategy, and techniques to master this generation.

What do all those Hoenn places have in common you ask? What do you mean you weren't going to ask D< All those places are settlements that don't have a gym. Hoenn has the most towns and cities that lack gyms with a total of nine. In contrast, all of Unova's towns and cities in the main story from Striaton City have gyms. So how did you feel about all these places without gyms? Did you feel it was pointless that you visited so many of these places? Do you think this should be done in future games, or would you prefer what Unova had with less gymless places? What would be the perfect gym to gymless ratio? I'm aware gymless isn't a word.

I loved having so many gymless towns- it made the region come alive a bit more and kind of gave the sense that there was more going on in the world beyond your personal badge quest. People were living their lives normally with the occasional disruption by some baddies. Life went on. You can easily imagine Hoenn as a whole just continuing on outside of your journey and the major plot events of RSE, and that makes it a very good world. Unova, by contrast- everything centres so much on the player that you can't really imagine anything else going on there. That's partially because of the constant gym cities and partially because of the linearity that Sonkitts touched on above.

Linearity doesn't make for a good sense of world, if you know what I'm saying. Events coming one after another and being herded along by the plot without getting a chance to choose where you want to be- that doesn't really let you explore what the world around you actually is. In Hoenn you had a huge region to play in and you weren't very restricted. I mean you could save Peeko and get all the way to Route 110 without ever meeting Brawly or Steven (your plot advancement points). In Unova... you couldn't even get into Pinwheel Forest without defeating Lenora, meeting Burgh, and starting the Plasma thing. And then you weren't left alone until you got the Dragonite skull back. Such restricted pathways and forced plot advancement left little fun wandering time, which is what I feel Pokémon is more about. It's a journey, your personal journey. And there should be an element of player choice involved in it.

So yeah, I think there should be more little towns that aren't focused on the main plot and more areas to explore without feeling obligated to do something. It gives a better sense of world, exploration, and choice.

Meh beats me.
That's what's wrong with Unova, starting from Striaton City, every city/town you visit has gyms.
Having gymless towns is cool, they give you time to train for the next gym. *Cough* Tate and Liza *Cough*

I loved having so many gymless towns- it made the region come alive a bit more and kind of gave the sense that there was more going on in the world beyond your personal badge quest. People were living their lives normally with the occasional disruption by some baddies. Life went on. You can easily imagine Hoenn as a whole just continuing on outside of your journey and the major plot events of RSE, and that makes it a very good world. Unova, by contrast- everything centres so much on the player that you can't really imagine anything else going on there. That's partially because of the constant gym cities and partially because of the linearity that Sonkitts touched on above.

Linearity doesn't make for a good sense of world, if you know what I'm saying. Events coming one after another and being herded along by the plot without getting a chance to choose where you want to be- that doesn't really let you explore what the world around you actually is. In Hoenn you had a huge region to play in and you weren't very restricted. I mean you could save Peeko and get all the way to Route 110 without ever meeting Brawly or Steven (your plot advancement points). In Unova... you couldn't even get into Pinwheel Forest without defeating Lenora, meeting Burgh, and starting the Plasma thing. And then you weren't left alone until you got the Dragonite skull back. Such restricted pathways and forced plot advancement left little fun wandering time, which is what I feel Pokémon is more about. It's a journey, your personal journey. And there should be an element of player choice involved in it.

So yeah, I think there should be more little towns that aren't focused on the main plot and more areas to explore without feeling obligated to do something. It gives a better sense of world, exploration, and choice.

This. I agree with this wholeheartedly, and I don't think I can put it any more adequately than you did.

__________________

I'm a silhouette, asking every now and then
Is it over yet? Will I ever feel again?
I'm a silhouette, chasing rainbows on my own
But the more I try to move on, the more I feel alone
So I watch the summer stars to lead me home.

It is one of the things that makes me love Hoenn so much.The gymless towns gives you a little break and a bit more grinding time without there being any real plots to the main storyline being involved.In the newer generations you really don't get any time alone, there's always some random person, your rival and the gym leader of the week forcing you into some plot advancements.But in Hoenn you're allowed to do a little exploring of your own without having to care about gyms, villainous teams etc.Also, most of the gymless towns have their own attractions so you can just enjoy the game without being bored.

I felt that the number of Gymless towns and cities throughout Hoenn gave it a much more realistic feel, especially compared to somewhere like Unova (and it even happened as far back as Kanto, with Lavender/Pallet being the only Gymless towns).

I think it gave a lot more character to the region, since you could go to a place like Slateport that still had a lot to do, but didn't need a Pokemon Gym to keep it lively. If we can see a return to this format in future games, I'd be quite pleased, as we shouldn't feel as we're being shoved through the story in one direction.

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"Just when they think they've got the answers, I change the questions."

This is one of the reason I love Hoenn/Gen III so much. The cities and towns without gyms give you more a chance to rest up between gym battles. It just makes sense that a trainer would do more than battle gym leaders all the time. If I were a trainer, I'd want to explore smaller towns in between the ones with gyms so I can train before my next battle similar to what Ash and his friends do in the anime. I've always wanted a game with more towns in between gym towns like in the anime. These towns in Hoenn made the region feel more real and not linear. One thing I didn't like about Unova was how linear the region was. There most cities with gyms in it and I fell like I was trudging along through each on forcefully.

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Ecruteak City"Where the past meets the present"Supporter City Collab 2015

I thought the large amount of towns and cities without gyms was awesome. It really made the games go for longer and let you visit a lot more people in a lot more places. Unova was a great region, but it annoyed me on how little different places and how linear it was. I loved stopping off in places like Slateport City and just having a nice time instead of worrying about gym battles.

it was a nice change to have gymless towns as it felt like it was the Anime,
as Ash visits so many town with out a Gym. plus it gives you a chance to enjoy the region with out the story coming in to play.

Tell you what, all these Gymless towns are etched to the fond memories of our minds when we play this game. They give you breathing space, yeah, but more importantly it feels more like a region. Lilycove, for example, a first look will tell you it's the most important port of Hoenn, apart from a Department Store, Master Contest Hall and the museum. But to your surprise : No gym! Even the Safari Zone is there. This tells you they became architectural genii when they made this region. Even Petalburg doesn't open it's Gym until later; which means that it's also a phantom Gymless town.

Most importantly, it elongates the journey, and also removes that feeling like "it's just a stupid GBA world where we have to go and battle gyms to gain power and brainlessly go along to beat the league, and then all the fun's gone." This was ensured by Team Aqua and Magma, and a first-time good storyline and CONTESTS. Yeah. Good enough to be pseudo-gyms.

I liked the gymless cities, they made the game feel more about adventure than just those badges. It made it feel like you had more places to go and more routes to get there, passing through a "pointless" town now and again.

Honestly, I would love to see these types of towns in the future. They aren't pointless, they're adding to the world.

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Current Pokemon re-play through: XD: Gale of Darkness

3DS/Pokemon Y FC: 5300 - 9087 - 1138
I'll be up to battle or trade, I'll also always be up to multibattle. PM me if you add me here, give me a reason that you're adding me, and I'll be sure to add you back!

I loved having the "gymless" towns. I don't like when I got to every city/town and I find out that there is a gym right away. I liked all of the gymless towns except for probably Ever grande City since it was pretty useless because all it had was a Pokemon Center, A Cave and The Pokemon League. Didn't feel like a city to me. I liked how they made most of the important towns gymless. Like Lilycove a city with a department store, a port and even the Safari Zone and Slateport City with an Outdoor Market, Museum, and a Port. Unova was a nice region but going to every town/city and finding out that there was a gym in every town disappointed me.

Emerald wasn't my favorite game for no reason. I loved all the gymless towns and cities because it gave you a chance to do something else besides hunting for the next badge. The Pokémon contests in ruby and sapphire were also great as well as the Safari Zone and the Battle Tents

The gymless towns were amazing. not by themselves, of course, but in the context of the entire region. It seemed more realistic, like the poeple there had other things to do besides battling and winning badges.

Lilycove City has got to be one of the best places in any Pokemon region so far. The way it was designed is exceptional, set on a beautiful cliff by the ocean. And it had the department store and Safari Zone to keep you entertained which i think proves taht you don't need a gym to stop you getting bored. i spent hours doing contests and catching every single pokemon in that safari zone so it was one of my favourite places.

Besides, if you wanted to battle, your rivl was their and the Aqua hideout is right next door. genius design.

Some of the gymless towns were given Pokemon Contests, so four of them (Slateport, Verdanturf, Fallabor and Lilycove) will be visited sometimes. Plus, because of the Pokemon Contest I believe that they'll be visited even more than the gym towns. They got a bit forgotten in Emerald Version, because all the contests were moved to Lilycove, so Lilycove became overvisited (not only because it includes all the contest ranks, but also because of the department store).

Besides the Pokemon Contest, any gymless town has its own singularity and there isn't any problem if you will not visit that town again to make any thing inside it. The simple fact you need to fly to that town to rematch a trainer at a route in its side is already enough to make that town an important point.

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